Three more NFL head-coaching vacancies were filled Wednesday, making it six down, two to go.

On Wednesday evening ESPN reported that the New York Jets hired Adam Gase as its new head coach. Right, the guy fired 10 days earlier by one of the Jets’ three AFC East rivals, the Miami Dolphins.

With Gase apparently getting the Jets job over ex-Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy, the latter reportedly will sit out 2019 and try to get a top job in 2020. He had been interested in only the Jets gig among the original eight head-coach vacancies this month.

The Jets also had interviewed Baylor University head coach Matt Rhule and recently let-go Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

At about the same time the Cleveland Browns reportedly hired interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens as the fifth head coach since Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought the club in October 2012.

Actually it’s six head coaches if you count Cleveland’s interim head coach for the last half of the 2018 season, Gregg Williams, whom the club fired Wednesday.

Apparently it did not matter that under Williams’ tutelage the Browns won more games than they lost — 5-3 — to make him the first club head coach (interim or otherwise) with a winning record since Marthy Schottenheimer in the mid 1980s, 13 hires ago.

Reportedly, more 2018 assistants soon will follow Williams out the door, including QBs coach Ken Zampese.

The Browns clearly must believe the mid-season turnaround was much more to do with the 44-year-old Kitchens than the 60-year-old Williams, who interviewed for the job on New Year’s Day.

You’d think the club’s promising new franchise quarterback, last April’s No. 1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield, must have approved of Kitchens’ hire. Mayfield’s stats over the first eight games of the season under then-head coach Hue Jackson were sub-standard. In five starts and one relief appearance, Mayfield completed 57% of his throws for 1,471 yards, eight touchdowns and six interceptions for a 78.9 passer rating.

After Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired at the start of Week 9, and Kitchens appointed interim offensive coordinator, Mayfield sparkled, completing 68% of his throws for 2,254 yards, 19 TDs and eight interceptions — for an outstanding 106.2 passer rating.

Kitchens takes over a young, talented, promising club anxious to build on its 7-8-1 record.

As for Fangio, the 60-year-old has been an NFL defensive assistant since joining Jim Mora’s New Orleans staff as linebackers coach in 1986. Since then he has been a five-time defensive coordinator, with Carolina (1995-98), Indianapolis (1999-2001), Houston (2002-05), San Francisco (2011-14) and Chicago (2015-18).

Kubiak’s 12 years of NFL offensive-coordinator experience and 10 years of NFL head-coaching experience (he led Denver to its Super Bowl championship three years ago) ought to help Fangio. That is, so long as Kubiak can add more modern colours to his offensive palette that had gone stale by 2016, his last season as Broncos head coach before retiring for health/stress reasons.

RICHARD TO DOLPHINS?

Alex Marvez of SiriusXM NFL Radio reported Wednesday afternoon that Dallas Cowboys secondary coach Kris Richard had the inside track on filling the Miami Dolphins’ head-coach vacancy, but that nothing was in stone. Richard is one of four candidates the Dolphins had interviewed by Wednesday afternoon. The others: Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, New Orleans defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and New England defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Apparently, ex-New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles hadn’t yet signed on the dotted line Tuesday to become Bruce Arians’ defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay before the Chicago Bears came a-calling, about possibly succeeding Fangio as their defensive coordinator. Reports said Bowles was mulling the two DC offers. But by late Wednesday afternoon Bowles indeed signed with the Cardinals, per ESPN.

Arians told Rich Eisen’s radio show that Byron Leftwich — like Bowles, an Arians assistant in Arizona before Arians temporarily retired following the 2017 season — will call offensive plays for the Buccaneers.

KINGSBURY, KEIM, CARDS

The Arizona Cardinals introduced new head coach Kingsbury on Wednesday. Naturally, he was asked about his only previous head-coaching experience, at Texas Tech, where he went 35-40 over six years before being fired six weeks ago.

Kingsbury said he’s looking forward to working with quarterback Josh Rosen, who’s coming off a tough rookie season.

“Hard to find a guy who throws it better,” Kingsbury said.

As for the other side of the ball, GM Steve Keim said “I don’t think there’s any doubt” that a veteran defensive coordinator would “be ideal in this situation,” and one who runs a 3-4 formational system, for which the Cards’ defensive roster was built. YOUNG vs. OLD

There are now four NFL head coaches in their 30s, and three are in the NFC West: Kingsbury (39), Sean McVay of the Rams (32), Kyle Shanahan of San Francisco (39) and Matt LaFleur of Green Bay (39).

But two of the new head-coach hires are in their 60s, bringing the total of sixtysomethings to six: Arians of Tampa Bay (66), Fangio (60), Mike Zimmer of Minnesota (62), Pete Carroll of Seattle (67), Andy Reid of Kansas City (60) and Bill Belichick of New England (66).

Ten NFL head coaches are now younger than 46-year-old Indianapolis placekicker Adam Vinatieri, and six are younger than 41-year-old New England QB Tom Brady.

REID REPORT: The NFL and NFLPA jointly announced general findings of an investigation into Carolina safety Eric Reid’s publicly stated claims in mid-December of having been randomly urine-tested more times (seven) than seemed possible in the 11 games after he’d signed with the Panthers.

Reid implied he was specifically, deliberately targeted for so many tests.

First, every player upon signing must undergo two urines tests, one for PEDs, one for substances of abuse. If Reid’s accusation of seven tests were true, it would mean at most five were random, not seven, as Postmedia reported last month.

Secondly, the league and players union announced Wednesday that the independent drug-test administrator appointed by both parties, as directed by policy, indeed randomly selected Reid for testing “via computer algorithm, and that his selection for testing was normal.” The statement did not reveal how many times Reid had been randomly tested, as the league and union have a strict agreement to never disclose details of any player’s testing.

That said, both the Washington Post and ProFootballtalk.com on Wednesday reported via sources that Reid was not tested as many times as he claimed.

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